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The Birth ofIndia & Pakistan

Mohandas Gandhi led India toindependence 6S years ago, with Muslims

breaking away to form Pakistan. Today,the region is one of the most dynamic-

and dangerous-in the world.

When Mohandas Gandhi

was 24, in 1893, he leftIndia to practice law inSouth Africa. Riding thetrain there one day with

a first-class ticket in hand, he was askedto move to a third-class car to makeroom for a white passenger. When herefused, he was thrown off the train.

Gandhi would later describe thatencounter as his "moment of truth,"when he decided he would dedicate hislife to fighting injustice. He went on tostage many other acts of civil disobedi-ence (all nonviolent) in India to protestBritish colonial rule. His efforts eventu-ally helped force the British to give uptheir prized colony, which gained itsindependence and was partitioned intoIndia and Pakistan in August 1947.

BY PETER EDIDIN

"It was a moment of celebra-tion," says Akbar Ahmed of AmericanUniversity in Washington, D.C., evenif today, "many of the hopes and aspi-rations that many people had in thesubcontinent have not been fulfilled."

The beginning of British rule in Indiais usually dated to 1757, when an armyassembled by the British East IndiaCompany (British investors who wantedto trade with India) defeated the gover-nor of Bengal in a battle near Calcutta.

This private company, with its owntroops and powers of taxation, soonbecame the dominant force on a sub-continent of 4QOmillion people. (Thecompany did so well that its money,some historians have argued, financedthe Industrial Revolution in England.)

The East India Company was a brutal

16 t!tlJcNc\ulorkt!timcl"i UPF"RONT • UPF"RONTMAGAZINE.COM

Mohandas Gandhi(1869-1948), India'srevolutionary leader;(top, right) Muslimsfleeing India forPakistan, Sepl1947

and often racist overseer whose indif-ference helped create and exacerbatefamines in India in the 1770s and '80s.

British IndiaBut colonial rule also brought benefits,

especially after the East India Companywas pushed aside and India becamean official British colony in 1858. TheBritish introduced not only the railroadand the telegraph, but also the Englishlanguage, which gave educated Indians,who spoke many different languages,a common means of communication.

Equally significant, the British legaltradition introduced Western ideas ofindividual and social rights. In fact,the leaders of Indian independence-Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru (India'sfirst prime minister) and Mohammad

L

Ali Jinnah (Pakistan's first leader)-all trained as lawyers in London.

Although there had been period-ic rebellions against British rule, it wasnot till after World War I (1914-18) thatthe drive for independence gained trac-tion. During the war, more than a millionIndians served the British as soldiersor laborers, and the Raj (as the Britishadministration in India was known)promised self-government after the war.

But in 1919, Britain adopted theRowlatt Acts, giving the governmentemergency powers to quell publicunrest, induding the right to imprisonanyone deemed suspicious. It seemedto be a betrayal of promises of self-rule,and protests broke out.

This was the moment when Gandhi,who had returned from South Africa in

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1914, emerged as a national figure. After21years in South Africa fighting prejudiceagainst Indian workers there, he foundeda religious commune near Ahmedabad.

'Non-cooperation'Gandhi was unlike any political leader

India had ever seen. He looked like a sim-ple Hindu holy man in his white loi~dothand shawl of homespun cotton; he wasa vegetarian and espoused nonviolence.But he was a powerful speaker whosequiet delivery before even the biggestcrowds made people feel he was address-ing them individually. It was Gandhi whotransformed the drive for Indian indepen-dence into a mass movement.

In response to the Rowlatt Acts, hecalled for a day of protest in which busi-nesses shut down throughout the country.

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The British arrested Gandhi and otherprotest leaders, leading to more dem-onstrations. At one, on April 13, 1919,in Amritsar, British forces fired on theunarmed crowd, killingmore than 400.

The massacre galvanized Indians,and the leader they rallied aroundwas Gandhi. They began to call himMahatma ("great soul" in Sanskrit).

Gandhi called for a campaign of "non-cooperation" with the British. Indianchildren were withdrawn from school,Indians in public office resigned, andIndians boycotted the legal system.Seated crowds, refusing to budge evenwhen beaten by police, made streetsimpassable. (Blacks in the American

Peter Edidin is a former editor at The Times.

Additional reporting by Veronica Majerol.

JANUARY 30, 2012 17

TIMELINE India & Pakistan

1858British ColonyThe india Act transferspower from the BritishEast India Company-aprivate company thatbecame a dominantforce in India after1757-to the Britishgovernment.

1919-30Gandhi's RiseAfter Britain's 1919violent crackdown onprotesters, Gandhilaunches a nonviolentcampaign that includessit-ins and boycotts.In 1930, his NationalCongress partydeclares independencethe goal.

South would later copyGandhi's methods of nonviolentprotest during the civil rightsmovement.)

In 1930, the NationalCongress (Gandhi's politicalparty) declared the goal ofindependence from Britain.Gandhi called upon peopleto refuse to pay the taxesthat funded the colonialadministration-including thetax on the production and saleof salt, which led to the GreatSalt March, a 240-mile marchto the sea, ending with Indians producingtheir own salt to avoid paying tax.

Again Gandhi was arrested, buttens of thousands of Indians followedhis example, making salt at theseaside and submitting to beatingsand arrests. The mass demonstrationsthat followed were a public relationsnightmare for the British, who were

1940Muslims v.HindusAmid growing tensionsbetween Muslimsand Hindus, Muslimleader Mohammad AliJinnah calls for thepartition of BritishIndia into two nations:a Hindu India and aMuslim Pakistan.

Financially depletedafter WWII, Britain letsits colony go; Pakistanand then India becomeindependent nations.More than 10 millionMuslims and Hindusflee, Muslims toPakistan and Hindusto India.

1947-71Kashmir &BangladeshIn 1947, war breaksout between thetwo countries overKashmir; a secondwar over Kashmiris fought in 1965. In1971, East Pakistanbecomes Bangladeshafter a bloody fight forindependence.

Nonetheless, when the warended in 1945, a financiallydepleted Britain had neitherthe resources nor the will tomaintain rule over India.

PartitionBut what would take

Britain's place? In additionto 240 million Hindus, Indiahad 90 million Muslims whofelt ignored by the Hindu-dominated political leadership.Mohammad Ali Jinnah, whoheaded the Muslim League,

threatened insurrection if Muslims weredenied their own state, but Gandhi ada-mantly opposed partition.

The British established an interimgovernment in 1946, with Nehru asprime minister, but throughout thatyear, events on the ground pushedMuslims and Hindus apart. They hadlived together for centuries, but now,

President Obama with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of Indiaat a Southeast Asia summit in Indonesia last November

forced to release Gandhi in 1931.When World War II began, Gandhi

and Nehru, his longtime political ally,decided not to support the war unlessIndia was granted immediate indepen-dence. Britain refused, and Gandhi begana "Quit India" campaign. He was quicklyarrested along with as many as 100,000others, short-circuiting the protests.

18 \!ibeNc.urDork\!iinus UPFRONT • UPFRONTMAGAZINE.COM

India and Pakistan arerevealed to be nuclearpowers, prompting theU.S. and other nationsto impose sanctions onboth countries.

20019/11AttacksAfter the Sept. 11,2001, terrorist attackson the U.S., Pakistanagrees to help theU.S. fight AI Qaedaand dismantle theTaliban in neighboringAfghanistan.

often egged on by their leaders, theybegan to riot and kill each other.

In 1947, Lord Mountbatten, the lastBritish viceroy (the top official in India)pushed for immediate independence andpartition. In July, the British Parliamentagreed, and on Aug. 14 and IS, 1947,Pakistan and then India became inde-pendent nations.

Despite Gandhi's vision of peace,things didn't work out that way. Millionsof Hindus immediately fled Pakistanfor India, as millions of Muslims fledIndia for Pakistan (though manymore stayed and remain today). Morethan 10 million people became refu-gees, and a brutal cycle of killing andrevenge-killing claimed as many as1 million lives. On Jan. 30, 1948, theviolence claimed Gandhi, who wasshot to death by a Hindu fanatic upsetay Gandhi's tolererance of Muslims.

In the years since partition, therwo countries have faced different

2008.Suicide Attack

2011Bin Laden Killed

2012Booming India

Relations betweenthe U.S. and Pakistanhit a low point in May,when American SpecialForces kill Osama binLaden, the mastermindof the 9/11 attacks. Hewas found hiding notfar from Pakistan'scapital, Islamabad.

India blames Pakistanimilitants for a suicidebombing in Mumbaithat kills 174 people.

challenges. Though India, with apopulation of 1.2 billion people, hastransformed itself into a major economicpower, millions still live in poverty andreligious violence continues. Pakistan,which became a Muslim state, has beenwracked by political instability andIslamic extremism.

The U.S. & the RegionRelations between the two countries-

both U.S. allies-have been marked byhostility, leading many world leaders,including President Obama, to describethe region as the most dangerousplace in the world. India and Pakistanhave fought three wars, two over thedisputed region of Kashmir, whichboth claim. Both countries are nuclear-armed and have come close to a nuclearconfrontation. After a period of calm,tensions between' the two countrieshave run high since 2008, when terroristattacks linked to a Pakistani militant

India, a key U.S. tradingpartner, is emerging asa global power with oneof the fastest-growingeconomies in the world.

group killed ISO people in Mumbai,India's most populous city.

To understand why this region is soimportant to the U.S., just take a lookat the map on p. 17: The U.S. has beenrelying on Pakistan to help in the warin Afghanistan next door, and has beenkeeping a close eye on Iran, which hasbecome a nuclear threat in recent years.The U.S. also has vital economic inter-ests in India, a key trading partner andone of the fastest-growing economies,and also in neighboring China, now theworld's second-largest economy.

President Obama summed upAmerica's stake in the region, andAsia in general, during a recent tripto Australia.

"With most of the world's nuclearpowers and some half of humanity," hesaid, "Asia will largely define whetherthe century ahead will be markedby conflict or cooperation, needlesssuffering or human progress." •

JANUARY 30,2012 19